Seriously, you guys don’t have any more important issues to worry about? Things that actually affect real Tennesseans? You know, like healthcare? Jobs? Education? Pollution? Veterans affairs?
No?
Oh well, then. Dig your own grave. The Nashville Scene reports:
Neighbors opposed to the planned underground entertainment complex that first lady Andrea Conte envisions for the Executive Residence are raising their screeching protests an octave by creating a group called Tennesseans for Accountability in Government (TAG), which local businessman Lee Beaman is bankrolling, confirms Steve Brumfield, a public relations executive whom TAG has retained.
The jokes just write themselves. Lee Beaman, the uber-partisan who never saw a smear campaign he didn’t like (that Swift Boat Veterans donation really paid off for you, didn’t it?). Lee Beaman, whose wife Kelly formed an "ethics in government" group that strangely was only interested in one politician from one (rival) political party. Heh.
This is so obviously a partisan attack on Tennessee's Democratic Governor. Seriously, turning neighborhood NIMBYism into a statewide issue? Are they serious? Does anyone in Memphis or Knoxville give a crap about the wealthy residents of Curtiswood Lane being put out by some construction noise? And just look at the folks involved in TAG: Lee Beaman, Mr. GOP moneybags himself; Crom Carmichael, prominent TN GOPer; conservative anti-tax activist Susan Kaestner and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research--the same clowns who revealed that Al Gore --GASP!--uses electricity. In other words, the usual Republican Party suspects.
Trying to parlay a local issue affecting a handful of wealthy Nashville suburbanites into a statewide witch hunt against a Democratic Governor is either an act of tremendous chutzpah or a sign of desperation. I’m voting for the latter; I think the TN GOP is so desperate to take back the governor’s seat that they are pulling out all the stops.
Consider this bit of nonsense:
“This is an issue that will have significant impact on all taxpayers,” according to a talking-point document that Brumfield authored. “They’re projecting $3.84 million in taxpayer money to pay for this. Of course, that’s the starting point—government projects always seem to go up from there, don’t they?”
Yeah, that pesky government, can’t trust it to stay within a budget! Just ask George W. Bush how his Iraq project is going, budget-wise.
No, Mr. Brumfield, $3.84 million in taxpayer money is NOT going to have a significant impact on Tennesseans. It’s about 66 cents per person. You know what does have a significant impact on Tennesseans? The cost of healthcare. Jobs. The need for housing for a variety of income brackets. Methamphetimine in our rural counties. Education.
Oh yeah, and wealthy GOP donors who keep bleating “taxes! taxes!” in an attempt to whip up partisan furor.
Get a life, Mr. & Mrs. Beaman. The people of Tennessee have more important issues to worry about than your pet neighborhood issue.
